A couple of weeks ago we learned that the state of Illinois is facing almost certain financial disintegration because of decades of Democrats' shockingly irresponsible government spending. It's gotten so bad that now Illinois state lawmakers are receiving eviction notices on their local offices:
The state's money problems are so bad that lawmakers are getting eviction notices and calls from collection agencies about their offices back home.At least five state senators say they've piled up so much unpaid rent, sheepish landlords are asking them when the government plans to make good on its bills.
"He said, 'Ira, I'm sorry,'" said Sen. Ira Silverstein, D-Chicago, recalling a visit from his landlord delivering an eviction notice. "And what am I going to do? I can't argue with the man."
While none of the lawmakers has actually gotten the boot yet, they are getting a taste of the frustratingly slow pace at which the state pays bills as it careens toward a $13 billion budget hole. It's a pain that's magnified exponentially for school districts, drug rehabilitation counselors and businesses awaiting tax refunds.
"It certainly puts us in a position of looking like deadbeats," said Sen. Mike Jacobs, an East Moline Democrat who got an eviction notice last year from a longtime friend who has rented the same building for years to the senator and his father before him. Payment eventually arrived -- nine months late -- but Jacobs was prepared to pay if the state had failed to come through.
A notice threatening eviction startled freshman Sen. Dan Duffy, a Lake Barrington Republican. Unsure when the state will cough up the $10,000 it owes his landlord, Duffy is scrambling to see if he can take refuge in a nearby secretary of state driver's license outlet or a local library should he eventually get evicted.
"When they can't pay the rent of a Senate office, there's no way they're going to be able to pay the hundreds of millions of dollars in bills that they have back due," Duffy said. "It just shows what a tragic crisis we're in and how far out of hand this is."
Out of hand? That's one of the biggest understatements I've ever heard. And it's gotten that way because the state's Democrats threw around taxpayer dollars so quickly and nonchalantly that it was hard to tell if they were lawmakers or spoiled, rich trust-fund teenagers. Unfortunately, the GOP were pretty seriously handicapped in both the Senate (22 GOP to 37 Dems) and the House (48 GOP to 69 Dems), which meant the Democrats could pretty much spend taxpayer money as they pleased on any pet projects and entitlement programs they liked. Now the state is on the verge of economic collapse.
But I can't place blame solely on the Democrats. The voters can't point the finger at state government as if they had nothing to do with their state's current mess. They must share some of the blame for continually reelecting those bozos.
Update: Now that the Democrats have spent Illinois back to the stone age, Illinois' Democrat governor Pat Quinn wants to raise the state income tax by a third, from 3% to 4%. Not only are the Democrats irresponsible spenders, they're irresponsible taxers, too. Quinn seems to think he can raise taxes in a vacuum; however, a tax increase will have a negative ripple effect that will hurt Illinois' taxpayers by confiscating more of their income at a time when they need every single penny they make to support their families. They simply don't have the disposable income to pay more taxes.
The Democrats' terrible management of the Illinois state budget makes me think of a sign I used to see in a few offices of people I used to work with a number of years ago:
Poor planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on mine.
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Comments (10)
"Illinois is facing almost ... (Below threshold)1. Posted by GarandFan | March 13, 2010 12:49 PM | Score: 5 (5 votes cast)
"Illinois is facing almost certain financial disintegration because of decades of Democrats' shockingly irresponsible government spending."
It's all Bush's fault! ("It's all Bush's fault!" is a registered trademark of the DNC, to be trotted out whenever Democratic majorities have to face the music for lack of fiscal responsibility)
I've got a great idea! LET'S RAISE TAXES!
1. Posted by GarandFan | March 13, 2010 12:49 PM |
Score: 5 (5 votes cast)
Posted on March 13, 2010 12:49
2. Posted by jainphx | March 13, 2010 12:56 PM | Score: 7 (7 votes cast)
So we now see just how the Demoncrapic control over cities and states looks. the city of Detroit is proposing to plow under vast parts of the city and turn it into farms. Detroit used to be the fifth largest city in America, and now turned into a farm. Take tour of Detroit and cities in Illinois, the utter desolation will bring tears to your eyes.
Left corruption and idiocy has brought us to failure, and yet they somehow continue to be elected to power. You reap what you sow.
2. Posted by jainphx | March 13, 2010 12:56 PM |
Score: 7 (7 votes cast)
Posted on March 13, 2010 12:56
3. Posted by DaveD | March 13, 2010 1:02 PM | Score: 7 (7 votes cast)
"But I can't place blame solely on the Democrats. The voters can't point the finger at state government as if they had nothing to do with their state's current mess. They must share some of the blame for continually reelecting those bozos."
Absolutely.
And when their "favorite son" gets his federal agenda enacted, let's see how many unfunded mandates they can afford.
3. Posted by DaveD | March 13, 2010 1:02 PM |
Score: 7 (7 votes cast)
Posted on March 13, 2010 13:02
4. Posted by GarandFan | March 13, 2010 1:20 PM | Score: 8 (8 votes cast)
Kalifornia's next!
4. Posted by GarandFan | March 13, 2010 1:20 PM |
Score: 8 (8 votes cast)
Posted on March 13, 2010 13:20
5. Posted by jim m | March 13, 2010 2:18 PM | Score: 7 (7 votes cast)
Actually, raising taxes only 33% is an improvement from last year when the dems wanted to raise them 50% up to 4.5%.
I have to congratulate Illinois. They have come out of nowhere to contend for the title of the first state to enter insolvency. They have a state budget of $26B where $13B is completely unfunded. They have been passing out IOU's for everything from Medicare payments, to state retirement plans, to landlords, with no regard to when these IOU's might be paid.
There is no plan to pay them. Not this year. Not at any time in the future.
And yet the dems could spend $200M on trying to get the Olympics, something 60% of Chicagoans didn't even want. They spent over $100M on the bid itself and over $86M on land and property for venues in anticipation of winning the bid.
Illinois deserves what it gets.
5. Posted by jim m | March 13, 2010 2:18 PM |
Score: 7 (7 votes cast)
Posted on March 13, 2010 14:18
6. Posted by apb | March 13, 2010 2:29 PM | Score: 6 (6 votes cast)
On behalf of this fsck'ed up state, I heartily accept jim m's congratulations! What an honor, and indeed a privilege to be this close to beating Kalifornia to the bottom!
Looks like I picked a bad day to quit drinking!
6. Posted by apb | March 13, 2010 2:29 PM |
Score: 6 (6 votes cast)
Posted on March 13, 2010 14:29
7. Posted by Gmac | March 13, 2010 5:06 PM | Score: 5 (5 votes cast)
Eventually you run out of taxpayer money to support pet projects and entitlements. It's happening at the state level now but it's coming to the Federal level soon.
Best advise? Run, don't walk, for a more competently managed state now.
7. Posted by Gmac | March 13, 2010 5:06 PM |
Score: 5 (5 votes cast)
Posted on March 13, 2010 17:06
8. Posted by jim m | March 13, 2010 5:42 PM | Score: 5 (5 votes cast)
"Run, don't walk, for a more competently managed state now."
And what states are those?
Not California or Michigan.
I would nominate Indiana. Mitch Daniels has done a good job there as governor.
I landed in Mass. A marginal improvement at best (but the crime rate is WAY lower than Chicago).
8. Posted by jim m | March 13, 2010 5:42 PM |
Score: 5 (5 votes cast)
Posted on March 13, 2010 17:42
9. Posted by ODA315 | March 14, 2010 12:17 AM | Score: 2 (2 votes cast)
Why'd they stop at 4%?
If they'd have made it 6, it would DOUBLE their revenue. Hey, want to triple it? Yowzaaa, how about 9%? Just think about the "good" they could do with THAT much dough!!!!
Health care (plus other free shit) FOR ALL!!!
9. Posted by ODA315 | March 14, 2010 12:17 AM |
Score: 2 (2 votes cast)
Posted on March 14, 2010 00:17
10. Posted by Boots | March 14, 2010 5:21 PM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
It's worse than you know. The totality of unfunded obligations in Illinois is close to $100 Billion with a B. Extremely generous public pensions & free health care, along with a huge number of elected officials (Illinois has more elective offices than any other state in the union, even though it is not the largest by land mass or population).
The MSM is complicit in all this, at all levels of government. The news items on the impending financial collapse of Illinois' government are few and far between. Meantime, the state of IL is borrowing money and paying public pensions directly with the borrowed money. There's no longer any pretense that they are "investing" the money. They just borrow it and send out the checks.
10. Posted by Boots | March 14, 2010 5:21 PM |
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Posted on March 14, 2010 17:21